Jason and Alex invite special guest Scott Palka to the show, to help small business owners amidst the “new normal” of continuous change. They announce that IDA is now filming all shows, to provide an additional educational resource to consumers.Jason begins the show by introducing Scott, jedi master of helping business owners financially plan. He is the creator of an innovative model that helps small business owners with high level financial planning. This simple, short term projection tool provides a range of estimates for different scenarios, to help business owners make better decisions.Jason points out how difficult it is to be a successful investor without a quality financial plan, and the consequences are even more severe for business owners who lack a proper financial plan.Scott shares a common mistake he has seen small business owners make in these times – focusing on how to accomplish PPP forgiveness, at the expense of focusing on what is going to get the business through the crisis into next year.
The modeling tool helps business owners run a variety of scenarios to see what they need to do to ensure viability of the business going forward. He cautions business owners to do this when they have money so they can make adjustments and get to the recovery from this crisis; don’t wait until money has run out to find out the business isn’t working.Jason points out how great the correlation is to financial planning for people’s life savings – projections and scenarios are vital to run for success.Scott brings to light how business owners can get help with financial planning if they do not have a CFO. He offers to share his “do it yourself” modeling spreadsheet and his webinar that shows how to use it, with listeners. Please contact IDA via the “contact us” form in this post if you would like to receive these. He specifies it is designed for business leaders to use themselves to determine directional strategy and model potential scenarios. It is not for sending to financial professionals to use. Scott advises business owners look at the big picture first, then have accounting professionals drill down for more detail.Scott then shares a real-life example of how his model helped a local restaurant create a plan for how to get through the crisis this year.
They close the show by sharing the important fact that financial planning helps business owners sleep better at night amidst the new normal of continuous change. Agile businesses will not only survive but thrive. Alex stresses the importance of optimism about the future amidst the different challenges people face from the pandemic.
In this show you will learn about:
- How business owners can financially plan for different scenarios amidst the new normal of continuous change to survive the crisis and thrive
- What types of financial planning business leaders should do for themselves, and what types should be outsourced to accounting professionals.
- Some common mistakes small business owners are making and the importance of focusing on financial planning to get a business through the crisis rather than how to get their PPP loan forgiven.
- A modeling spreadsheet Scott built (complimentary to listeners), and how it can be used to help small business owners survive and thrive- How running projections and scenarios in financial planning are vital to both personal and business financial success